Cyclonus & Crumplezone - Armada - Figures

He wasn’t made in the fires of Unicron. However, the name Cyclonus sees its first use in fifteen years. And while the name fits the toy, it certainly is not a homage to the overly loyal Decepticon of the past.

Cyclonus is so reckless that even his own Decepticon allies are afraid of him. While performing aerial attacks, he may suddenly fly off to attack a lone Autobot, leaving his companions unprotected. Megatron likes to let him loose because he's so dangerous in battle, but he has trouble stopping him once he gets started. Will Cyclonus ever learn to control his savage recklessness?

It seems there’s always at least one unstable character in any given toy line. You’d think it would be easy to give guys like Cyclonus here a small upgrade to help them control themselves. I guess dumb warriors are better then no warriors.

Vehicle Mode
At just under 6 ¼” in length, Cyclonus appears to be a helicopter hybrid. While the overall design is of an assault chopper, the cockpit suggests a transport ship. This may be intention with the upcoming Destruction Minicon Team, which is rumored to be able to link up to Cyclonus’ underbelly. He is mostly light blue with tan props and rear wings and some dark blue (mostly on the cockpit) and purple. There is a Decepticon insignia molded into his right wing and is very well painted.

Cyclonus features numerous features in this mode. Attaching a Minicon onto either missile pod will fire the missile. A trigger on this tail activates the rotating propeller (and when Crumplezone is attached, his turret moves back and forth slightly as well). His rear tail assembly is removable as well, but doesn’t seem to attach well anywhere else. Since it’s not documented in the instructions, it may be an abandoned gimmick or it could have some use in future releases of Minicons or other toys.

To add to his already impressive firepower, two missile launchers and two guns under the cockpit, you can transform Crumplezone into a different cockpit with a gun underneath. Raise Cyclonus’ cockpit and swing Crumplezone’s turret 180 degrees and turn the Minicon’s treads upside down. Slide the treads over the notches on either side of Cyclonus cockpit and you’re done. I actually prefer this look as opposed to the non-Minicon cockpit.

Transformation
Start out by flipping the rather floppy legs under the cockpit back and move the guns to for the feet stabilizers. Spin the waist 180 degrees and then rotate the cockpit 90 degrees down. Extend the arms down and flip up the head up.

Robot Mode
Cyclonus stands at 6” (8 ½” if you position his rotor straight up) and appears a little lanky. He doesn’t have much in the way of a torso. He features swivel joints at the shoulders and elbows and can rotate his hips as well. He can bend at the knees, but when they are locked into place, some force is needed to get them unlocked for posing. His head also pivots and is not stuck looking up as he was pictured at Toy Fair.

There is a new gimmick in this mode. Well, it can be activated in helicopter mode, but looks a little silly. Attaching a Minicon to either post on the sides of his legs flips out the cannons hidden in his lower legs. The missile launchers on his arms still function. Unlike the other toys in the Supercon assortment, Cyclonus doesn’t feature any static (non-functional) Powerlinx points. Thankfully, you can use all of them to store Minicons without activating their features by not pushing them down all the way.

Crumplezone
Cyclonus’ Minicon partner resembles a tank of some sort. Since Crumplezone doubles as a second cockpit, the tank mode looks rather off if you’re looking at it from any direction in the rear. He’s mostly dark blue with light blue in the rear and off-white tread casings. His turret rotates 360 degrees and the cannon moves back and forth slightly to accommodate his linking with Cyclonus. Transformation is easy. Fold the cockpit section out and rotate 180 degrees at the waist. The light blue in his lower legs shows more in robot mode, otherwise the colors remain the same with some additional red highlighting on his moth plate.

Overall
When the Armada toys first popped up, Cyclonus seemed to be the first one to sell out. And while I don’t really have a favorite Supercon toy at the moment, I can see why Cyclonus could be more popular. He is neat looking in both modes and is also featured in the mini-comic that comes with the current Armada toys. His subdued colors scheme is also a nice counter Hot Shot’s more bright and cheerful look.